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What Small Business Leaders Need to Know About the Economy Right Now

Transform Your Workplace

Release Date: 03/31/2026

What Is Actually Behind Your Inability to Delegate with Susan Drumm show art What Is Actually Behind Your Inability to Delegate with Susan Drumm

Transform Your Workplace

Most leaders who cannot delegate assume it is a process problem. Susan Drumm has studied both sides of it, and her answer is that the skill gap is real but it is rarely the whole story. Underneath it is usually a belief you have been carrying since long before you managed anyone. Susan has spent two decades coaching C-suite executives, and her work centers on pattern recognition and pattern disruption. In this conversation she explains how she spots those patterns in a leadership team, why leaders resist looking at them, and what it takes to change one in the moment. She shares the story of a...

info_outline Why Your Labels Are Your Limits with Nir Eyal show art Why Your Labels Are Your Limits with Nir Eyal

Transform Your Workplace

Most managers already know what good management looks like. Give real feedback. Delegate. Have the hard conversation. Knowing it has never been the problem. Nir Eyal spent years asking why people who have the right answer still don't act on it. His conclusion is that the gap is not motivation or discipline. It's belief. And beliefs are harder to spot than habits, because from the inside they feel like facts. In this conversation, Nir walks through what a belief actually is, why confirmation bias quietly hardens a manager's read on an employee until it stops being reviewable, and what to do...

info_outline Unpacking the 2026 Human Capital Trends Report with David Mallon show art Unpacking the 2026 Human Capital Trends Report with David Mallon

Transform Your Workplace

Deloitte's David Mallon on the Culture Debt AI Is Building Most organizations are treating AI like the last big tech rollout. Buy the licenses, run some training, expect results. The data says that approach is backfiring. David Mallon leads the research behind Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends report, now in its 15th year. In this conversation, he explains why 59% of organizations taking a tech-first approach to AI are 1.6 times more likely to miss the return, and what changes when you redesign the work instead of layering tools on top of it. Brandon and David get into the human side of...

info_outline Why Your Sunday Night Mood Is Not Lying to You with Amy Leneker show art Why Your Sunday Night Mood Is Not Lying to You with Amy Leneker

Transform Your Workplace

How you feel on Sunday night tells you something real about your relationship with work. Amy Leneker, the author of Cheers to Monday, calls it one of the most honest assessments we have, and she would know. Seven weeks into medical leave after a panic attack, she sat in a doctor's office, got handed a questionnaire, and could not answer a question about what she did for fun. In this conversation, Amy walks through what she learned from that unraveling and the research that followed. She explains the difference between the stress that helps you perform and the stress that wears you...

info_outline The Space Between Communicating and Being Understood with Lee Caraher show art The Space Between Communicating and Being Understood with Lee Caraher

Transform Your Workplace

You wrote the announcement, rehearsed it, sent it, and a week later the questions rolled in anyway. In this episode, communication strategist Lee Caraher explains why most workplace communication fails on delivery, not message, and what to do about it. She shares a practical three-send formula for making any announcement stick, a protocol for deciding which messages belong in email, Slack, or a meeting, and a test for knowing whether your message actually landed. Silence and nodding, it turns out, are the clearest signs it didn't. Lee also makes the case for retiring the feedback sandwich for...

info_outline What Being Always On Is Costing You with Justin Hai show art What Being Always On Is Costing You with Justin Hai

Transform Your Workplace

Stress has become so normal at work that plenty of people wear it like a badge. Justin Hai wants that to change. He is the co-founder and CEO of Rebalance Health and the author of Stress Nation, and he studies what our always-on habits do to our stress, our sleep, and our health. Justin breaks down cortisol, the hormone he calls the body's alarm system, and explains why it gets stuck in the on position when we never put the phone down. He makes the case that sleep is the first thing to protect, not the last, and that most of the shortcuts people reach for are treating symptoms instead of the...

info_outline Why Knowing Your Blind Spots Is Not Enough with Cam Yenokida show art Why Knowing Your Blind Spots Is Not Enough with Cam Yenokida

Transform Your Workplace

Most leaders think self-awareness means understanding their patterns. Cam Yenokida sees where that falls short. The executive coach and founder of Achieve Excellence explains why intellectual self-awareness alone never changes anything, and what it takes to turn insight into new behavior. Cam and Brandon get into the quiet reality of senior leadership, where the higher you climb, the less room you have to think out loud. They talk about what actually makes a leader coachable, why assessments are a starting point and not an answer, and how a simple look at your calendar can reveal where your...

info_outline Why Waiting Is the Most Expensive Decision You Can Make show art Why Waiting Is the Most Expensive Decision You Can Make

Transform Your Workplace

Most leaders treat their technology problems as technology problems. Richard Tarity has spent 26 years watching companies prove otherwise. In this episode, Brandon Laws talks with Richard, the founder of truCX and author of The Intelligence Within, about why how an organization decides matters more than the tools it buys. They get into how slow discovery quietly kills good projects, why sitting on the sidelines costs more than picking the wrong tool, and how some teams gather more insight in one week than others do in ten months. Richard shares real stories, including a...

info_outline The Job Market Is Not Broken the Way You Think with Bonnie Dilber show art The Job Market Is Not Broken the Way You Think with Bonnie Dilber

Transform Your Workplace

The job market feels broken to a lot of people right now. Bonnie Dilber has a different read on it. As Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Zapier, she looks at hiring data for fun, and she says the problem is not that the jobs disappeared. It is that more people are competing for a pool of roles that has stayed flat, while plenty of work in trades, healthcare, and education goes unfilled. In this conversation, Bonnie and Brandon Laws get honest about what is actually happening in hiring. They cover the myths job seekers still believe, why AI-written resumes are making recruiters work...

info_outline We're Not Aliens. We're People - A Case for Belonging at Work with Zhou Fang show art We're Not Aliens. We're People - A Case for Belonging at Work with Zhou Fang

Transform Your Workplace

What does it mean to truly see your employees? In this episode, Brandon Laws sits down with Zhou Fang, founder of Intersectional Group LLC, to explore how an intersectional lens can transform the way leaders support their teams. Zhou draws on her experience as an immigrant, multilingual professional, and DEI consultant to unpack what most organizations get wrong about inclusion, how to hold people accountable with warmth and compassion, and why your people are your most important business decision. Whether you're leading a team of five or five hundred, this conversation will challenge you to...

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What happens when the labor shortage economists warned about finally arrives, AI reshapes entire industries overnight, and the economic outlook is anything but certain? Economist Dr. Bill Conerly joins Brandon Laws to break it all down. With over 1,400 speaking engagements and decades of experience advising business leaders, Bill brings a rare combination of sharp data analysis and plain-spoken clarity. This conversation covers the demographic forces squeezing the labor market, why AI's impact on jobs is more uneven than the headlines suggest, how small businesses can start adopting AI without overthinking it, and what a "flexible stance" looks like when the range of economic possibilities keeps widening. If you're a business owner, HR leader, or anyone making workforce decisions right now, this is the episode you need to hear.

Timestamps

  • 0:00 Introduction and episode overview
  • 2:00 The labor shortage economists predicted is now here
  • 5:30 Why doom and gloom forecasts keep missing the mark
  • 7:30 Is the pipeline behind Baby Boomers enough to fill the gap?
  • 9:30 How an era of labor abundance created sloppy management habits
  • 11:00 Are there people who could work but choose not to?
  • 13:00 The trades shortage and whether younger workers are filling it
  • 15:00 What skills people should be learning in the age of AI
  • 17:30 Are AI-driven layoffs real or a convenient excuse?
  • 20:00 Could we see 10% GDP growth and 10% unemployment at the same time?
  • 23:00 The shift from wanting stuff to wanting experiences
  • 26:00 The productivity paradox of doing more but not working less
  • 28:00 How small businesses should start adopting AI
  • 32:00 Is AI an existential threat?
  • 35:00 Fed decision, inflation, and the economic outlook
  • 38:00 Why small businesses are struggling while the stock market climbs
  • 41:30 What's underhyped and overhyped in the economy right now
  • 44:00 What's going on in Oregon's economy
  • 45:30 What a flexible stance looks like for business leaders right now

A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST

Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR 

Host: Brandon Laws 

In Brandon's own words: 

"The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders."

About Xenium HR 

Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more

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